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Edwin Denby
Edwin Orr Denby (February 4, 1903 - July 12, 1983) was an American poet, and an important and influential American dance critic of the 20th century.Robert Cornfield, introduction to Dance Writings (Knopf, New York, 1986) Life The son of Martha Dalzell (Orr) and Charles Denby, Jr., Edwin was born in Tientsin, China in 1903, where Charles had been appointed as Chief foreign advisor to Yuan Shikai a year earlier. Edwin's grandfather, Charles Harvey Denby, who had served as United States Ambassador to China for an unprecedented 13 years, died when Edwin was a year old. Edwin spent his childhood in Shanghai and then in Vienna, where his father served as consul general, 1909-1915. He came to the United States in 1916. He was educated at Hotchkiss, and attended Harvard University but failed to graduate. He also attended classes at the University of Vienna, before obtaining a diploma in gymnastics (with specialty in modern dance) at the Hellerau-Laxenburg school in Vienna in 1928. He performed for several years, notably with the State Theater of Darmstadt.Ron Padgett, introduction to Edwin Denby, The Complete Poems (Full Court Press, New York, 1986). Looking for someone to take his passport photo, he encountered photographer and filmmaker Rudy Burckhardt in Switzerland in 1934, and the 2 remained inseparable for the rest of Denby's life. The following year, they returned to New York and rented a loft for $18 a month in a 5-story walk-up building on West 21st Street in Chelsea. Edwin's friendship with painter Willem de Kooning, who lived a floor below in the adjacent building, began shortly thereafter when de Kooning's kitten turned up on the fire-escape outside of Edwin's window.William MacKay, Edwin Denby, 1903-1983 in Dance Writings (Knopf, New York, 1986) of Horse Eats Hat at the Maxine Elliott Theatre]] In 1935, soon after Denby's return to New York, Orson Welles and John Houseman asked him to adapt Eugène Labiche's Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie for the stage. The play, titled Horse Eats Hat was scored by Paul Bowles and was performed as a Works Progress Administration Federal Theatre Production in 1936. During his lifetime, being ambivalent about the publication of his poetry, he was known primarily as a dance critic. At the behest of Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, he began writing a dance column for the magazine Modern Music in 1936. In 1943, Thomson drafted Denby as the dance critic for the Herald Tribune.American National Biography, Vol. 6. Ed. John A. Garraty and March C. Carnes. Oxford University Press, 1999. On Tuesday, July 12, 1983, at the summer house he maintained with Burckhardt in Searsmont Maine, he committed suicide; he had been ill and increasingly concerned about the loss of his mental powers. Recognition Denby was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 2002. Publications Poetry *''In Public, In Private: Poems''. Prairie City, IL: Press of J.A. Decker, 1948. *''Mediterranean Cities: Sonnets''. New York: G. Wittenborn, 1956. *''Snoring in New York''. New York: Angel Hair Books (Adventures in Poetry), 1974. * Collected Poems. New York: Full Court Press, 1975. *''The Complete Poems'' (edited by Ron Padgett). New York: Random House, 1986. Novels *''Mrs. W’s Last Sandwich: A romance''. New York: Horizon Press, 1972. **also published as Scream in a Cave. New York: Popular Library, 1972. Non-fiction *''The Criticism of Edwin Denby'' (photos by Walker Evans). New York, Dance Index / Ballet Caravan, 1945. * Looking at the Dance. New York: Pellagrini & Cudahy, 1949; New York: Horizon Press, 1968. *''Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Streets''. 1965 * Dance Writings (edited by Robert Cornfield & William MacKay). New York: Knopf, 1986. *''Willem de Kooning''. Madras & New York: Hanuman Books, 1988. Collected editions *''Mag City #14: Edwin Denby issue''. New York: Mag City, 1983. *''Dance Writings and Poetry'' (edited by Robert Cornfield). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998 (limited preview) Translated *''Edwin's Tao: Being a rough translation of selections from Lao Tze's 'Tao the ching'.'' New York: Crumbling Empire, 1993. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Edwin Denby, WorldCat, OCLC, Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, June 30, 2014. See also *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems * "The Sienese Shredder" * "The Subway" * Edwin Denby at the Poetry Foundation ;Audio / video *Edwin Denby at PennSound *Edwin Denby reads his poems in MP3 format ;Books *Edwin Denby at Amazon.com ;About *Edwin Denby in the Oxford Dictionary of Dance. *Forgotten Writers: David Rivard on Edwin Denby at Mamoriousmag's Blog. *Feature: Edwin Denby, 1903-1983 at Jacket magazine Category:1903 births Category:1983 deaths Category:American poets Category:American dance critics Category:Harvard University alumni Category:University of Vienna alumni Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Dance writers Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets